


The Little Black Dress

by SilverShortyyy



Series: Little Black Dresses and Little Hot Messes [3]
Category: Dark Shadows (2012)
Genre: Carolyn is shookt, Elizabeth wants a break, Gen, Julia is actually not drunk, Little Black Dress, Victoria/Julia if you squint, like squint really hard - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 12:39:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10854183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverShortyyy/pseuds/SilverShortyyy
Summary: Little Black Dress— A dress hidden in the dark shadows of a woman's closet. Just a little too short, just a little too tight. Shows off all possible curves on a woman's body. Simple.Elizabeth and Julia are planning to go on a night out. In Elizabeth's words to Julia:"Just make sure you'll have something to wear."





	The Little Black Dress

Elizabeth finds it deep in her wardrobe, remembering well how she hid it deep in there after she wore it last time. Since then, she's grown inches taller and maybe a pound heavier, but she hopes this works, hopes this will be just fine.

She has more than a couple of things on her mind. In fact, she has an entire house, a town, a business, and a family in mind. Not to mention the little subtopics that could be broken down into, and the little subtopics in those subtopics, and the details within the details within the details. And she adds to that list how she's now eyeing her... Distant relative from supposedly somewhere near two hundred years ago?

As much as this is her life, she needs to get another one, at least for a night. And what better way than to go out of town?

After checking that her door is locked and the curtains are drawn, she peels off her many layers of clothing only to leave her underwear on. She holds the dress up in the mirror against her, and she's brought back to how beautifully it compliments not only her skin but also her hair. Just a little make-up ought to do the trick, and maybe then she'll turn into even just a semblance of her youth for the night.

When she slips it on, it fits perfectly. Her curves accentuated, her body outlined to perfection. The hem stops short of a quarter of her thighs, and she can't think anything else but yes, _yes_ , it's _perfect_. She scans herself top to bottom in her mirror, and she can't help but imagine herself fitted into the sight she had seen all those years ago, that last time she wore this when she had gone out.

The litte black dress looks handmade for her. The soft silk caresses her skin with utmost care, and it's as if she hasn't worn it for a month rather than a few years.

———

Carolyn thinks back. Save for being forced out of the house because she was sort of murdered, Julia never actually got out of their house. In all the years the doctor's stayed, Carolyn can't think of a time that the woman wasn't getting herself drunk somewhere and actually outside, in the town, or out of the town if anything. Hoffman turned into some kind of regular thing in the house, and now Julia the Nearly Almost Always Drunk Vampire became the next big thing.

But she never went out of the house.

So, Carolyn can only imagine the surprise that washes over her face when she overhears her mom and Julia talking in the hallway, and at first the topic would've been enough to shock her, but Julia's answer shocks her more.

"You could use some fresh air, don't you think?" At the first sound of her mom's voice, Carolyn presses her back on the corner's walls to keep from being seen.

"I could, couldn't I?" Comes the wondering answer of Julia Hoffman.

At first, it's enough to shock Carolyn. Julia, _actually_ considering going out of the house? Alice Cooper could be a woman!

But that isn't the end of it.

"So why don't you?" She's glad neither her mom nor Julia sound like they're still walking, or else she'd have to make a quick escape.

"Never got around to actually do it, I guess. I use up all my time getting drunk and lounging around somewhere so, it doesn't really leave time for anything else."

Her mom speaks next. "What if I tell you I'm going out tomorrow night and I'm not going out for cupboard restocking or whatever the hell else?"

Carolyn didn't think she could get anymore shocked. Her mother? Doing anything liesurely? It didn't sound possible! She nearly walks over to question what drug her mother is on when she hears Julia's response.

"Will you take me with you?"

"Just make sure you'll have something to wear."

And that's it, Carolyn guesses. The world is upside down. The apocalypse is coming. When she reaches her bedroom, she nearly screams in shock. What the hell is going on?

Things are happening, sure, but is everything that bad that the two people she never thought would go on a night out are going on a night out, and on such short notice?

* * *

She doesn't know why she packed it, but it's always been at the bottom of her things.

Julia immediately yanks her suitcase out from under her bed once she got to her bedroom, conversation with Elizabeth fresh in her mind. She'll be going out, for once, and as much as she always mulls it over in her mind, this is the first time she'll be doing it in actuality.

She's much too old to be excited for this, is she?

But what's age? What, in the name of hell and all its demons, is age? It's just an abstract concept humanity came up with to track who's older and who's younger, who's spent more days on earth between a man with heavy wrinkles and white hair, and a man with smooth skin and slicked-back hair.

Age is nothing. So she pulls her suitcase open without much of a care, pushing aside her other clothes to find the one she had buried with a certain embarassment in her cheeks.

She had no one to show it off for. Now, now she does.

She fits it on just once, just to become familiar with the feel again, and the cotton just hugs her form perfectly and she can't believe she hasn't worn this in ages. Vampire or not, she looks hella fine in this. Much better than old lady clothes that the stores say someone in their middle ages should wear.

Middle aged? Look at her, look at Julia Hoffman in this dress, and tell her to her face she's old.

Hell no. She looks nothing close to old with this on.

Changing back into her much more normal clothes, she folds the dress neatly to put on the top of the pile rather than the bottom, looking now for a matching pair of pumps to match her look. Eccentric red hair, and maybe a darker blue shade for her eyeshadow. And dark, dark red lips. And just as dark nail polish.

Good God, she's happy she packed all that.

And she's happy she finds her reliable black pumps in her suitcase. She sets them on top with the little black dress and zips them away under her bed once again. Only to be opened tomorrow night, she thinks to herself as she sits on her bed with a happy huff.

For the first time in how many years, Julia feels free again.

_Thank you, Elizabeth._

* * *

Victoria has to admit it to herself. It's weird to see Julia actually walking around the house, not drunk at all, and most of all, _smiling_. Yes, it's nearly subtle, if not for the slight bounce to her step that reflects in the bounce of her bright red hair, but she's still smiling.

When Victoria sees it with Barnabas, he visibly stiffens, guilt obvious in his eyes. Could he have something to do with it? But it couldn't be, because never in that entire day did Victoria see Julia spare a glance at Barnabas. If anything, Barnabas seems to have become more invisible than everyone's staring at Julia's unprecedented behavior.

What happened overnight for that to have happened?

Except, as the day wears on, Victoria finds herself staring at Julia. Not in shock, but a little more in admiration. Julia, Victoria thinks, looks much better—much more attractive—when she's smiling. Julia looks so much better when her eyes are bright and her posture isn't heavy with alcohol, and little smiles and smirks just give so much more life to her, even with a flash of a little fang here and there.

Although needing to hide in the shadows lest she burns in the sunlight, Julia seems to light up on her own, without the need of any kind of light.

She doesn't know how long she stares, only that brown eyes catch her staring, and Victoria finds herself averting her eyes rather too quick to be normal. She feels her cheeks heating up, and when she looks back at Julia, those brown eyes are staring amusedly at her—and dare she say is scanning her—while Julia smirks at her, fangs bared and lips upturned.

Victoria likes this Julia. Oh how hard that is to deny, especially when certain definitions of 'like' seem to fit perfectly into the situation.


End file.
